Red and Yellow
by Microtomb
Summary: "I'm sorry," She muttered. "But at least allow me to take you to the hosp…" "Leave…" He hissed. She raised her head, not believing he was still wanting her to leave with injuries such as his. "But you'r…" "I SAID LEAVE!" He roared
1. Chapter 1

Red hair trailed behind her Kitsune mask, flowing in the brightly lit streets. The festival was her favourite time of the year. There was no 'Namikaze-sama' this or 'Naruko-sama' that, she was just an ordinary kid in one of the many Kitsune masks that were sold around this time. She would frequent all the stalls, some more than once, winning all the prizes she could, or eating all the candy apples and candyfloss. It was her time to be normal and enjoy her time out of the limelight. Currently she was 11 years old, ever since joining the academy at the age of 6, her exceptional talent as a kunoichi as well as her heritage seemed to bring a lot of unwanted attention. It always puzzled her as to why she never had a bodyguard or caretaker, but the Hokage had said she was simply so well loved by the village that nothing would happen to her, and that the village itself would most likely be her bodyguard if anything were to happen.

Wading her way through the crowd, she would occasionally lift her mask an inch to allow herself a nibble of her candyfloss, it was around midnight and she had recently completed her 'all round tour' of every store. She noticed the crowd moving as one towards the centre of the town, most likely for the firecrackers that would signal the end of the festival. She frowned as they did this; everybody in the crowd was generally a good head taller then her, so she never really did seem to get a good view of the spectacle. Wanting to have a good view for once, she made her way against the flow of the crowd. She came out next to a building lining the street and took a look up it before nodding inwardly. Gathering chakra to her feet and placing one on the building, she concentrated as she let the chakra attach itself to the structure in front of her. She took slow steps up the building; the process seemed slow, but after a minute she had reached the top. Sighing slightly at the exertion, she looked back down the 4 or so metres she had climbed and smiled to herself in satisfaction. Although she was no master of tree walking, she had no doubt her friends would be nothing but amazed at her newly acquired skill, chakra control had of course, always been her specialty. A loud static noise caught her attention before it evened out and a voice could be heard instead.

"I hope you've all been having a great time, I know I have. Food, drink and friends, what more could one ask for?"

The crowd seemed to cheer in agreement. The announcer gave a small smile before continuing.

"But like all great things, the festival must come to a close. I do hope that you all enjoyed yourselves tonight, and no doubt, Yondaime-sama himself is watching over us right this moment, happy that we are celebrating instead of mourning." The man paused a moment, bowing his head slightly in remembrance.

"Well Yondaime-sama, I'm not sure if you liked fireworks but like yourself, they go out with a bang. Goodnight everybody, enjoy the show and long live Konohagakure!"

As soon as the announcer finished his rant, a flaming missile flew into the air before shattering into thousands of bright blue lights, it gained an awed sound from the crowd before the missile was joined by many of its brethren, all exploding in different colours.

Naruko watched in fascination as the light orbs illuminated the sky, she wanted nothing more than to gaze upon them for a lifetime. Oddly enough she noticed a large group of people did not seem to share her sentiment and broke away from the rest of the crowd almost immediately as they had begun. She would've paid them no extra heed if she hadn't noticed one of them openly wielding a knife. Everybody knew this wasn't allowed, 'No weapons are to be openly brandished in public places bar training grounds or under extreme circumstances.' The council had made it a priority that everyone received a book of conduct every year.

'_No training ground in sight…' _She thought,_ 'So what are the extreme circumstances?'_

Idly she wondered if it was even worth her time looking into, he was probably just a drunk, stupidly holding his knife for no reason…but drunk people do stupid things, and why did he have a knife in the first place? Cursing her sense of morality she took one last look at the fireworks before heading off to follow the group.

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He knew they were coming…he knew for certain that they were coming. They always did. Even with his brief time in the orphanage, even when he was sheltered, even when he _thought_ he had some semblance of safety, they would always come for him. He would drag around his tent, stolen of course, moving from alley to alley, setting up a new residence for however long it lasted. They always found him, so he kept moving. Usually they wouldn't do much, just chuck rotten food at him, the occasional rock, it meant nothing to him, but he moved anyway. The fireworks, it was always the fireworks, the precursor of foreshadowing events. They were smart, using the sound as a cover in case he screamed, he never screamed though, never gave them the satisfaction. They hurt him, caused him pain, he didn't like pain. He could just run, get away easily, if he wanted, he could kill them, but that would just draw more unwanted attention. One time he chose to avoid them, it lasted about a week before they found him. What he got was a beating with interest. He didn't avoid them anymore, fighting back just gave them more cause to hate him. He knew why they hated him, though the hate was obviously misplaced, 8 year old boys don't tend to go on rampages killing half the village the day they are born. Apparently he did. Wrong.

The footsteps grew louder and closer, slowly but surely, they reached the entrance to his alley. Stepping out of his tent to meet them half way, the boy held an impassive look upon his face.

"…And to what do I owe the honour?" The boy quipped blandly.

"Demons don't have honour." Was the snarled response.

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She watched the events play out, and was confused as to why the group of men were acting so hostile towards a boy who seemed years younger then herself. She could not hear what they were saying due to the fireworks being so loud, but it seemed that the man wielding the knife was being provoked merely by standing in the boy's presence. She decided to intervene before things got out of hand. Performing a substitution with a garbage can near the boy she appeared in front of the group of men.

"You do know that having a knife out in public is against village conduct and you could be arrested and detained for such an act don't you?"

The man who had been addressed seemed to blink a few times, not having expected anyone to interfere. He refocused his gaze onto the masked girl in front of him before retorting.

"You do know I could use this knife to kill you if you don't move." He sneered somewhat condescendingly.

Before Naruko could even think about responding she felt a firm grip on her shoulder.

"Leave."

She turned around to look into a pair of startlingly blue eyes. A confused look appraised her masked features.

"What?" She asked disbelieving.

A firm look settled onto the younger boys face.

"This has nothing to do with you, leave."

She gazed into his eyes; they were solely focused on her. They were compelling her to leave. Suddenly his pupils dilated and flickered to the left, 1 second following, she was promptly thrown to the ground. At that moment, the fireworks ended, and a splattering sound was heard throughout the alley. Regaining her bearings Naruko looked up to see the boy, blood splattered on the wall next to him, and a large slash across his stomach. She watched in mute horror as the boy straightened himself and turned to her, blood pooling faster at his feet with each movement.

"Leave."

So many things were going through her mind, was the boy insane, he had a massive slash on his stomach and he's worrying about her? Or maybe he really was _just_ insane.

Gathering her feet she quickly ran up to him, seemingly ignorant of the attacker lingering not 2 metres away.

"Are you crazy? We have to get you to a hospital!"

The boy's pupils dilated again and he raised his hand to block a downward slash aimed for the girls face. It fell short but managed to knock off the girl's mask.

"Do you see what you're doing here?" He asked slightly agitated. "Leave!"

One of the men in the group slowly spoke up.

"Hey, that girl looks familiar…isn't she.."

The attackers face turned ghost white as he got a good up close look.

"SHIT, IT'S THE YONDAIME'S DAUGHTER!"

Many cry's of 'if she reports us we're dead' or 'He attacked the Yondaime's daughter' were heard. The group of men seemed to clear the area fairly quickly after this revelation, whilst Naruko herself was too dazed and concerned for the boy in front of her to bother trying to stop them.

The boy slumped down, choosing to lean against the alley wall for support.

"What the hell was that?" He muttered.

"What?" She asked, in a concerned tone.

"You're supposed to be Namikaze Naruko right? Ninja prodigy? If that's true then I have two things to ask." She nodded and he continued.

"If you're really a prodigy then what was that performance? You came in with the intention of saving me no doubt, yet the outcome was the same as if you hadn't come at all."

She frowned.

"Well, I…"

He interrupted her.

"In fact all you did was get in the way and prove to provoke him, usually they don't even use the knife." His agitation rising.

'_Usually?'_ She thought.

"I'm sorry," She muttered. "But at least allow me to take you to the hosp…"

"Leave…" He hissed.

She raised her head, not believing he was still wanting her to leave with injuries such as his.

"But you'r…"

"I SAID LEAVE!" He roared, never had she seen such fierceness in the eyes of someone so young. She cowered in fear; did she really deserve his wrath? Had all this been her fault? Was she really so weak she couldn't protect one little boy? She turned around and left the alleyway, shocked. Left in the alleyway the boy raised his bloodstained palm to his face, smearing blood over his forehead and nose as he started to sob. Inwardly a voice mused.

'_**You should have killed them.**__'_

And the boy concurred.

'I should have killed them.'

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"This isn't the alley I fell asleep in." The boy muttered. A voice responded.

"You're pretty lucky Naruto, it's not everyday Naruko-chan comes to me with tears in her eyes telling me to save someone."

Naruto adjusted his eyes, he was in the place he loathed…the hospital. Sitting across from him was the Sandaime himself.

"Well, then again, it's not everyday you nearly bleed to death is it Naruto-kun." The Sandaime joked, chuckling slightly. The blonde boy just responded with a slight glare.

"Is it?" The Hokage asked, unsure.

"I'm leaving." Naruto spoke. His self-removal from the bed didn't go as well as he planned, as he noticed something weighing down on his lap. It was the _girl_. His gaze remained indifferent.

"What is _she_ doing?" He asked distastefully.

Hiruzen chuckled.

"Well I believe she was quite concerned for you, and maybe she wanted to apologize? I hear you were quite harsh with her."

"I only spoke the truth, Hiruzen." He stated.

"Sometimes the truth is hard to hear, Naruto-kun."

Naruto proceeded with the removal of the red headed weight from his lap before making his way to the door.

"But it's still the truth."

As the door closed the aged Hokage sighed, Naruto didn't seem to be in the 'talking' mood. From what Naruko had said, the boy held some promise as a ninja, and with his bloodline, this was expected, but he didn't know if the boy would be so eager about pursuing his talent.

'_I suppose I will have to talk to him about this at a later date.'_

Getting up to leave, Hiruzen went over to the still sleeping girl and lightly shook her awake.

"Naruko-chan, wake up."

The redhead's eyes slowly fluttered open as she brought her hands up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She looked around as if searching for something.

"Where is he?" She asked sleepily.

"Young Naruto left a few minutes ago, he was cleared to leave this morning." The Sandaime responded.

"Naru…to." She tried out the name.

"Yes, his name is quite similar to yours, isn't it Naruko-chan. But don't worry, he'll be fine… You on the other hand better get going, academy starts in half an hour."

She nodded her assent before following out the door Naruto had previously gone.

She had a lot to think about.

A/N:

Just an idea I'm trying out. Naruto x Naruko, siblings yes. R&R thnx.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

Thanks for the reviews, just a quick note that this will not follow the canon timeline, if canon is what you like, go watch the anime or read the manga. I don't know about you, but I think I've read the wave arc enough thousand times in my life. I will

**Not be numbering chapters, coming up with chapter names is beyond my imaginative capabilities, just take a look at the title of this fic.**

Exhausted, he was exhausted beyond belief.

'_**Again!**_' A voice snarled.

The boy forced all his energy into the punch as it made a resounding crack against the targeted boulder. The boy's eyes widened as he felt his knuckles snap under the pressure.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" He writhed on the ground whimpering in pain, nursing his wounds.

'_**SHUT UP! YOU'RE PATHETIC!**_' A surge of red was sent to the boy's mangled hand. Slowly, it began to reform and heal. The boys breathing evened out as cold sweat dripped from his forehead. He gathered his feet and went over to see the damage he'd inflicted upon the boulder. Only a small indent with barely visible spider web fractures could be seen. He growled in dissatisfaction.

'It's not good enough, I have to be stronger.'

'_**Again!**_'

1 Year Later

"All done?"

Naruko turned her head and a slight smile crossed her face.

"Yeah, I'll be going now, I know how you like to be alone when talking to them Kakashi." The silver haired man gave a small eye smile as he watched his sensei's daughter rise to her feet from the memorial stone.

"You know me too well Naruko-chan."

"I better get going then, wouldn't want to be late on my first day back."

Kakashi tilted his head in slight confusion.

"I don't see why that's a problem." She rolled her eyes at his response.

"Of course _you_ wouldn't see a problem with being late, see ya." She gave a quick wave before running off to the academy. Chakra infused steps made quick work of her journey to the academy, though despite her pace, she was in no way looking forward to going back to the academy. Her best friend Ayame had decided to drop out and help her father full time with the ramen stand he owned. Although he was only in his early 40's she could tell that he was becoming stressed with having to work just by himself practically 24/7. Her other long time friend Minatsuki had actually been dropped from the program after last years evaluation, she was a very pleasant person, but she was clearly not made out to be a ninja, though it still seemed harsh to just drop someone from the program altogether. No, she wasn't exactly enthusiastic about this year at all.

As she walked through the doors to her classroom she saw her sensei sitting at his desk looking over some paperwork.

"Good morning Hokazu-sensei."

The sensei in question looked up and greeted her monotonously with a blank look.

"Good morning Naruko."

That's how he was, never revealing too much, always keeping his mask of indifference, he seemed a little too good to be wasting his time as a academy sensei, but that was her opinion. She made her way to a nice hide-away seat, right at the back of the class. She wasn't antisocial or anything, but she was hoping to spend her time alone today.

Over the next 10 minutes the class filled slowly, it was actually quite empty, only 11 people including herself. She made a note that only one person from her class last year had decided to come back again. A familiar face at least, though she was embarrassed to admit she couldn't even remember his name. At least he had chosen to sit by himself like most other people in the class, that would've been an embarrassing interaction, no doubt he knew perfectly well who she was. Class started and it was fairly boring, standard procedure stuff. Hokazu would outline what skills they would be learning that year as well as expectations for them and such. Standard stuff. Boring stuff…

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What….the hell.

'_That lying bastard Hiruzen, I don't know if he thought this was a funny joke but I definitely do not share his sense of humour._'

Naruto sat through his first class at the academy for the year. It was… fairly enlightening.

'_If this is seriously what they teach to the my age group, I can't wait to see what they teach to the first years._' He thought dryly. He scanned the room for anyone who was thinking along the same lines as him. He saw a spiky pineapple haired boy looking on the verge of sleep and a black haired black eyed boy with arm warmers looking extremely dissatisfied with the lesson so far.

'_I suppose they are the more competent ones in the class_.'

When he heard what they would be learning for the year he actually growled aloud in irritation.

'_Henge and Kawarimi…they have no use to me._'

The one who he'd learned was called Jiban raised an eyebrow at the strange noise.

"Is there a problem…what was your name again…" He muttered searching his class role.

"Naruto…no last name?" Naruto frowned at being reminded of this.

"No, I am an orphan so I have no last name…and there is no problem…Jiban…san."

This earned him a few looks, it was certainly an oddity to have no last name, and the way he'd addressed the teacher was more than a little unorthodox. Jiban let it slide though and continued with his little speech, though in his head he was wondering just where he'd heard the name Naruto before.

It was lunchtime; well it was lunchtime for most people. For Naruto it was more like sit around and do nothing because you didn't have any food to eat, time. He decided to spend his break sitting under the shade of a tree far from anyone else. He noticed that people tended to keep to their own year groups. The first years seemed to be doing jovial things such as playing tag and hide and seek, whilst the older children would spend time having friendly spars, even though he was sure they were not allowed to do so without supervision. He chose to watch the latter group; some fights were actually entertaining, well only when they ended up getting hurt. As a Taijutsu specialist as he'd like to call himself, there was nothing to appreciate from them, sloppy form for most part, and far far too slow for his standards. He was fairly confident in his abilities to beat anyone of them in a fair one on one Taijutsu fight, he wasn't so sure about Ninjutsu though. That was the main reason he'd agreed to come to the academy, Hiruzen had said specifically that they would be teaching 'useful' Ninjutsu. Apparently the man and himself had two totally different understandings of the word 'useful'. He had spent the last 3 years physically training his body; physical training was thankfully, something you needed next to no resources to do. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were other stories entirely, although to be fair, he had absolutely no chakra control at all, nor could he be bothered dedicating time to training it. So unless he was learning an SS ranked jutsu that required mammoth amounts of chakra and no control, he most likely wouldn't be learning any Ninjutsu anytime soon. It was a rather contradictory situation he found himself in, but he'd figure something out eventually. Though, he knew for sure as hell that he wasn't going to start training his chakra control for such useless jutsu as the Henge and Kawarimi. Incentive…that's what he needed…but where to find it.

'_Certainly not here._' He mused.

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Her first lunch alone, it was an odd feeling, an unwelcome feeling… She made her way out into the field with her bento in hand, her eyes scanning for anyone familiar. She caught sight of a young boy sitting off to the side by himself; he seemed to be distancing himself from everyone else. Curiously she made her way over, heading in the general direction, but not walking in a straight line so as not to alert them of her presence. On closer inspection she realised she knew this person, though it was a person she had not spoken to in quite some time. She hadn't seen much of them since the _incident _last year.

She decided to try a greeting.

"Hey, Sasuke." She spoke with a somewhat hesitant smile on her face. She wasn't exactly friends with Sasuke, she had more idolized his brother, though she would say they were more then acquaintances. The raven-haired boy refocused his eyes as he realised he was the target of a conversation.

"Naruko…what do you want?" He asked somewhat coldly. She was taken aback slightly at the manner in which the boy spoke to her, he had always been such a cheerful kid, though it wasn't a completely unexpected change considering the circumstances.

"Oh nothing," She laughed nervously, "I just thought you looked lonely and was wondering if you wanted some company."

The young Uchiha glared at her.

"I don't need your pity, leave." Her eyes widened slightly, 'Leave', it was just like that time. Her gaze fell to the ground and her face visibly saddened.

"A-actually, I was sort of feeling lonely and hoped that you wouldn't mind keeping me company." She admitted sadly. Sasuke's features softened, he didn't know why she was feeling lonely, but he knew the feeling, and he didn't wish it upon another person…well, maybe he did wish it upon _one_ person. He sighed before patting the ground next to him.

She gave a meek smile before taking up the offer.

"Thanks."

The two sat in silence for the most part, not really having anything to talk about. Naruko however found silence quite boring and tried to strike up a conversation.

"So Sasuke, what have you been doing since the last time I saw you?" She tried to phrase it carefully, not wanting to bring up his clans death.

"Training." He responded nonchalantly.

"Well yeah, but that can't be the only thing you do." She said. He gave her a serious look.

"I train."

'_Right…'_

And silence soon fell again.

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Talking…this man had been talking for an hour now, and there was still an hour left till he could leave…no, till he was _supposed_ to leave. He had tolerated as much of this man's nonsensical blabber as he could. No more. Without a word, the young blonde boy stood up and left the classroom, all the while leaving a bewildered sensei and class behind. He was bored; this was supposed to be the cure. It wasn't. He was definitely going to have a 'talk' with Hiruzen about this. As he left the academy building he noticed a class out on the field doing some Taijutsu practice.

'_This could be interesting.'_

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She didn't really expect to be doing Taijutsu practice on the first day, though she couldn't say she was displeased. She watched each kata her sensei performed whilst mimicking him perfectly. It was just the basic academy style; she had learnt and mastered it a while ago. They practically drilled it into you the whole of your academy experience; it wasn't bad, though she probably wouldn't be using it in a real combat situation, she had learnt other styles from her fathers scroll collection after all.

"Now that everybody is stretched, we'll start the matches." Hokazu drawled out.

"You two." He pointed to two classmates. "You're up."

The match was interesting, the two were pretty evenly matched, and they showed a good range of attacks, defensives manoeuvres and counters. They both seemed to have the same tactic, keep increasing the pace until one of them couldn't keep up and then take advantage of the opening. Naturally, it only worked for one of them, the other ended up getting quite a powerful uppercut to the mouth. It was when this happened that I heard a snicker come from somewhere behind me. I frowned; not thinking that what had happened was exactly the situation to be laughing about. I turned around to see about 10 metres behind me, sitting on the fence, a young looking blonde haired boy. I was about to ask him what he was even doing here when my eyes widened in recognition.

"N-Naruto?"

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Despite how slow they were moving, he was enjoying this fight immensely. Why? Because he knew that very soon one of those fools was going to slip up, and that the other was going to make sure to put them down. The boy couldn't help but snicker as fist met mouth and one of them landed on their ass.

"N-Naruto?"

Naruto turned his attention to the one who called his name. It was a redheaded girl who looked a few years older then him, somehow he found myself thinking they looked familiar and that he should know who they were, sadly, at that moment, he couldn't quite place them.

"Yes?" He answered.

Immediately he was tackled off of the fence and somehow found himself on the ground with a redheaded weight on his lap. NOW he remembered who this was.

"What the hell are you doing Namikaze!" The blonde growled. Luckily she had the decency to be embarrassed and quickly recoiled off of him into a sitting position on the ground.

"I'm sorry, but ever since that night, I've been looking for you everywhere but I could never find you. I…I have something to say to you." She said seriously.

"Well then try to use your mouth this time and not a tackle." He grunted getting into a sitting position. She nodded, apparently she was very serious.

"I would like to apologize for my actions on the night that you received the slash to your stomach, but that's not all. I would like to thank you for your words." This gained his attention.

"You made me realise my shortcomings as a ninja, and ever since I have been striving to become better so that a repeat of that night never happens again. You made me a better ninja and I thank you." To her class who had been listening in on her speech, they were awed and thought she sounded far more mature then any should be at that age…To Naruto however, it was all a load of crap. Was she trying to anger him?

"…usting." He muttered.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked, not quite having heard him.

"I said it's disgusting!" He yelled. Naruko instantly recoiled at his outburst.

"Wha-what?"

"You say you want to become a better ninja? No! You say you _have_ become a better ninja. Well go on then, fight me, see what happens."

She was confused, how had her apology come to this?

"Take your stance dammit!"

Not wanting to anger him further she took her stance, slightly flustered.

"You!" Naruto pointed, "Count us in!" Hokazu nodded in understanding.

"3,"

"2,"

"1,"

"Hajime!"

Before Naruko could even react Naruto had appeared in front of her with a kunai to her throat.

"You're dead." He muttered. Naruko's eyes widened, he was fast!

"Winner, the boy."

Naruko fell to her knees in shock, trembling.

"Now let me tell you why I think what you said is disgusting." He growled. "I came here for the same reason you did, to get stronger. What do I find half way through the day? That this place is a complete and total waste of time! If you were even a half decent ninja you would've realised this just as I had, so don't lie to me about being better. Whether you became less weak then you were a year ago doesn't change one solid fact." The boy turned and started to leave the training ground.

"You're still weak!" He yelled.

**A/N:**

**The way this fic is shaping out is far from my original plan. Naruko was supposed to be a strong individual, but my story seems to be writing itself, slightly over dramatic but hopefully enjoyable.**

Ensoa: The statement about the bodyguards was just to justify her being by herself and that the villagers wouldn't attack her. I didn't think to far into what other meanings that bit of information could have, so you may call me the retarded one.

**Th4n:**

**Thank you for that review, I was confused by the people talking about 'parent abandonment' shit myself.**

**Ari-tenshi: Yes the pairing is NarutoxNaruko.**

**graive the crimson: Ok.**

**Tsukune08: I understand the ideal of elder siblings protecting younger siblings, though not on a personal level. My elder brother tended to beat the living shit out of me for the first 11 or so years of my life.**

**Naginator: By "From what Naruko had said, the boy held some promise as a ninja, and with his bloodline, this was expected," I merely meant that since his parents were good ninja, he should be one too.**

**Btw, Naruko's appearance is only changed by red hair and no whisker marks.**

**On an ending note, I will not delve too much into the past, at best I will give passing hints and it's your job to infer certain facts, though don't read too far into things. I will definitely not use 'omg they are related' as a plot twist to get in the way of their relationship, that is really overused and pisses me off.**

**R&R thnx**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Just a quick note before everyone gets bitchy, because I foresee several reviews stating 'OMG U SHIT CUNT, STORY MOVING WAY TOO FAST.' That ain't the case. I will no longer be saying what will happen in the story or my intentions for said story in author notes. If you want to find out what's gonna happen, keep reading, don't have any qualms over u ditching it. Shortish chap.

For years she had strived to be as strong as him. Hour after mundane hour of practice, sweat and blood shed so she could be like him. Ever since his proclamations of her being weak, she tried and tried to close the gap between them. He was her rival, whether he acknowledged it, whether it was one sided or not, that's what he was to her. He was a goal she strived to beat, almost a way of life, she _lived_ to be better then him. Every time he was mentioned, she became unlike herself, every time his name was brought up, her mood shifted from friendly to stoic, fierce and determined. Every time she trained, every time she went on a mission, _he_ was whom she thought of. But after 9 long years, he was still better than her. It's true what they say, no matter how good you are, there is _always _someone better. But this statement held no truth when applied to _him_, he was the best, there _was_ no better. She was near the top, no doubt, but this made no difference if he made her look like third-rate trash in comparison. In his eyes, she was nothing, her existence held no importance to him, she was pathetic. She would proclaim to him of how she would be better then him one day; in return she would get a bored unamused look. He had changed since he was a boy, he was not as aggressive, he was not a volatile emotional bomb waiting to go off anymore. But that was the problem. He expressed nothing, he spoke nothing, he showed _nothing_. This was just another aspect of him that she hated. She spoke to him constantly, at certain points in time she even tried to befriend him again, he never gave her a word. She didn't even _know_ what his voice sounded like, the last words out of his mouth being tormenting and mocking. She would pass by, and offer some sort of acknowledgement, generally in the form of a glare…but apparently she wasn't worth even a glance… At least, not from him.

The lithe bodied redhead opened the door to the Hokage's office where all the jonin currently in the village had assembled. She seemed to be the last to arrive. All figures in the room turned to see who had arrived and gave nods of their heads as greetings… all except for one blonde haired shinobi. He stood leaning against a wall off to the side of the room, distancing himself from the conversation that had just died out from her arrival. All remained silent as their Kage started the meeting.

"I see you have all gathered." Hiruzen started. Naruko couldn't help but notice how old he was. He must've been at least 80, if not nearing it.

"As you all have noticed, over the past years, my power has been waning. No doubt in the aspect of Ninjutsu I can still hold my own against any shinobi, but my body is growing old. I doubt I could keep up with the majority of you in Taijutsu."

All gained a sobered look, they had all been thinking it, but to hear it come from the man himself was slightly…upsetting. To see a shinobi of Hiruzen's calibre being defeated by something like old age was saddening. The old Kage chuckled at the looks they gave him.

"Though your looks of sympathy warm my heart, they are not needed. I'm guessing by now most of you already have a rough idea of what this meeting is about." More sad looks were garnered from the group of shinobi.

"To confirm your suspicions, yes, I am stepping down as Hokage." The room filled with hushed chatter and some looks of disbelief, some of the denser shinobi having not guessed at all. Hiruzen raised his hand to silence them.

"Yes, I know it may come as a shock to some of you, I have indeed been Konoha's Hokage for so very long. However, I would not be stepping down if I didn't have a suitable replacement." He paused letting his statement settle in, scanning the faces of his jonin before noticing a nervous looking silver haired shinobi. He let an amused smile play across his features before he decided to calm the man.

"Relax Kakashi, it is not you, though I did consider it." Kakashi visibly relaxed at this, and went back to burying his face in his green book.

"My successor shall be…Naruto." Everybody in the room apart from the aforementioned blonde went wide eyed. Naruko felt a pang of sorrow in her heart, which was then overcome by a feeling of jealously. A few of the bolder jonin's voiced their opinions.

"B-but, Hokage-sama, with all due respect, isn't Naruto-san a bit _young_?"

"Age has nothing to do with skill, which I assure you Naruto has more than enough of."

"But what of the villagers, how will the-"

"Stop." Naruto spoke making all eyes gather on his person. Many were startled by the unfamiliar voice. "Is it official Hiruzen?"

"Yes, I filled out my resignation papers this morning as well as filled in yours for your promotion."

"So I am Hokage now?" He asked bored.

"Yes," The now former Kage replied smiling, "I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life in peace." A brief smile flickered on Naruto's face.

"Indeed, you deserve it." Naruto walked to the front of the room before addressing the silver haired jonin. "Hatake, come join me up front." Kakashi gave a confused look before pocketing his book and walking cautiously to stand by the young blondes side.

"I have two announcements." He spoke blandly. "The first is that I retire as your Kage and welcome you to congratulate Hatake Kakashi as my successor…" He trailed off, noticing the dumbfounded looks of everyone present.

'_He what?_' A certain redhead found herself thinking. Kakashi looked like he had crapped his pants and was staring incredulously at the blonde. Naruto cleared his throat, expecting a different kind of reaction.

"I said clap." He reiterated. Slow awkward clapping filled the silence as Naruto nodded his head in approval before continuing.

"The second is I retire as a shinobi." If they weren't gawking before, they definitely were now. With a bored look Naruto removed his forehead protector before tossing it on Kakashi's new desk and exiting the room with a few parting words.

"I'll leave you to it, Hokage-sama."

Everything remained still as the door closed on its hinges. Mentally a certain newly promoted Hokage was repeating '_It's just a joke, a cruel, cruel, sick, twisted joke.'_

They were bought out of their stupor as one of the occupants of the room dashed out in pursuit of the blonde.

"WAIT!"

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He didn't know what Hiruzen was thinking trying to appoint him as Hokage, he held no love for Konoha. Even so, he respected it enough to turn down the position of its Kage, he was not fit for the position of protector of the leaf. With that thought in mind he suddenly realised, '_why am I even a shinobi of Konoha in the first place.'_ He had no reason to be as far as he was concerned. He didn't know why he hadn't realised this before. But upon this realisation, came another; if he was strong enough to be a Kage, why should he even continue being a ninja at all? He was stronger then everyone, he was the strongest. His life had been devoted to being the best ninja, and as far as he knew, he was. Most of his time breathing had been spent training, he had accomplished his life goal. What else was there to do? He didn't know.

'_What am I supposed to do now?_'

"WAIT!"

He figured someone would follow him, he just hadn't expected it to be _her_. He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to face the redhead. She looked…unhappy about something.

"You're serious about all of this aren't you, this isn't some kind of sick joke is it?"

'_Of course I'm serious.'_ He thought to himself, but outwardly she received no response.

She stared into his blank expression in confused rage.

"I…I don't understand…"

"What is there to understand? I quit." He replied. Water started to well in her eyes.

"Do you know…what I've been doing these past 9 years?" The intensity in her voice caught his interest. "Everyday…just to beat you…I did everything to be better then you…AND THEN YOU JUST QUIT?" She yells in angered disbelief. His emotionless expression taunts her.

"What has my life been? Without you there's…without you…I HAVE NOTHING! You were the goal I strived to beat, the one person who spurred me on, only so one day, maybe I could be on top…what am I…what am I supposed to do now…" She finishes breaking down. Naruto's eyes widen slightly… '_what am I supposed to do now_'…this girl…The blonde slowly walks towards the broken redhead, kneeling down next to her defeated form. When his face is on level with hers, he speaks.

"Fool girl," Slowly, Naruko raises her head, "perhaps you and I are not so different than I first thought." Her pupils dilate as she registers his words.

"W-wha?"

She closes her eyes as his hand slowly reaches to caress her face. She waits…and waits…nothing happens. Opening her eyes Naruto is nowhere in sight.

'_Why?_'

A/N:

**Somewhat short, but like I said, story is writing itself, I was going to give up on this story when last night I found some inspiration that gave this chapter birth. I already have 70% of the next chapter done, so expect it rather soon. Bear with me, this was just a sort of flash forward chapter, last time I'm saying shit.**

**Btw…Wtf, didn't expect so many reviews, sorta jealous that my other stories don't get as much straight off the bat, weird being jealous of yourself in a way. **

**Thyrokio: That could work. **

**The Ripple Effect: Naruko is 3 years older than Canon Naruto's age. Naruto is same age as usual. **

**Ari-tenshi: Shit, even I can't remember, 8 or 9 lol. In this chapter he's 17 and Naruko is 20. As for rushing, Idk, can't really seem to write much, making things happen in shorter amounts of words. My portrayal of Naruko last chapter…dear god what have I done to make someone think she is comparable to Sakura, you sir have the right to chop my dick off. May have done so in this chapter, next will be different.**

**Joao brasileiro: **** As to why he stayed and watched the matches, it was stated about the academy '**He was bored; this was supposed to be the cure.' **Academy was supposed to be the cure for his boredom. Then '**As he left the academy building he noticed a class out on the field doing some Taijutsu practice. '_This could be interesting.'' _**Simply boredom, if you were bored, you watch something that interested you right?**

**MT~**


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:**_

_**This is a continuation from chapter 2 so you might want to go back and re-read as it's been a long time since I updated. I do not know how often I will be bouncing back and forward in time, but it will be occasional. The next chapter will be future again, and will stay that way for a bit.**_

Weak, he said she was weak. Just because he was stronger then her didn't make her weak. Why would he say those things to her? It took her until he had disappeared from her vision to wonder why she had even approached him in such a friendly manner in the first place, they weren't friends after all…maybe he just liked his personal space…NO! There she was sticking up for him, maybe he was just a bad person, why did he antagonize her like that. It hurt her feelings, it hurt her pride…He did this. Was this why she overheard the villagers saying those things about him? That he was a demon, a bad egg. She had overlooked them before but now she was seeing why they would say those things. Tears that were threatening to fall instantly vanished, replaced by an angry looking frown. He says I am weak. I am not weak.

'_I'll show him._'

"Are you alright Naruko?" A monotonous voice asked from behind her. She turned her head and directed a serious look at her sensei.

"We need to talk."

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"We need to talk, _old_ man."

The old bastard actually had the tenacity to smirk and play dumb.

"Oh, whatever about, Naruto-kun." Naruto shot him a dirty look.

"Make me a genin." He growled. The old Kage couldn't help himself and actually started laughing in the boys face.

"Wha-WHAT'S SO FUNNY!" The boy yelled slightly flustered. Hiruzen calmed himself down.

"It was that bad?" He asked smiling. He received an annoyed look.

"Yes it was, I even ran into the _girl_ and defeated her in about 3 seconds." This slightly shocked the old Kage.

"You defeated Naruko?"

"Let's just say if that is the standard of a 'prodigy' I must be a prodigy myself." He said sarcastically.

"You really think you have what it takes to be a genin?" Hiruzen asked seriously.

"Yes." The blonde replied confidently.

"Perform the Henge jutsu for me."

The blonde instead performed a scowl with his face muscles.

"I don't know how, nor do I want to know."

"Then you can't be a genin." The Kage sighed.

"WHAT! Why would I need to know such a useless jutsu, I haven't exactly seen a Taijutsu specialist in action, but I doubt mid fight they would stop to use the henge."

"I don't see what a Taijutsu specialists fight has to do with this."

"Because that's what I am! I rely on my Taijutsu and from what I've seen from your 'ninja-in-training' it's all I need."

'_A Taijutsu specialist he says._'

Hiruzen arose from his seat and made his way over to the yellow haired orphan sitting across from him.

"If you say you are a Taijutsu specialist," Hiruzen said placing his hand on Naruto's shoulder, "then you will show me." With a puff of smoke they both disappeared.

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"Train me." Hokazu maintained a blank look.

"I have been for the past year." He replied.

"Academy teaching doesn't count, you saw what happened out there, I got beat and by a child."

"You are also a child, it is not unexpected to beaten by another."

The redhead fumed.

"Well then train me so he can't beat me."

"No."

"Why not! I know you're far more skilled then you let on, why can't you train me."

"Because whether or not you realised it, you are arrogant."

This irritated her slightly, she couldn't remember the last time she was truly angry but today was pushing it.

"No I am not." She growled.

"And stubborn." He added. "The arrogant part was you assuming I would bother to take extra time out of my day to train you."

"So what? I can never ask for training because it'll just mean I'm being arrogant?"

"No, if you had asked before your encounter with the boy I would have gladly agreed. It is obvious you are angry with your defeat and just want to get stronger to beat him, this is unlike you." He berated.

"Well isn't rivalry a healthy thing?"

"In some cases, though this isn't a rivalry, and rivalries generally entail two people, _not_ your sensei. Don't expect me to involve myself and waste my time for something so pitiful. Rather I am disappointed, one defeat and you become so unlike yourself, go home and calm down."

Never had she been so blatantly rejected in her life, this was certainly not what she had expected.

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It angered him, being so easily dismissed as the child he was. Though in his defence he hadn't exactly been expecting the Hokage himself to be testing him. He didn't care what people said about the Hokage being weak, apparently due to their stupidity, old was now a synonym for weak.

"I believe I have seen enough." The man motioned for him to stop.

Naruto was angry, not with the Hokage, but with himself. He had been so confident, he was sure he could land a hit, put up a decent fight, but he hadn't even come close. He waited in defeated silence for the man to dismiss him.

"I am impressed." Naruto lifted his head in hope. Impressed?

"Your form is something you definitely need to work on, if anything, I think that was the one thing holding you back from landing a hit on me. However, your raw speed and power are of at least low Chunin level if not slightly higher. Normally we do not allow people to graduate without the knowledge of the 3 basic academy jutsu, though there have been special cases much like your own where we have been…lenient."

"So…does that mean…"

"Yes," The old man smiled "though you have grown up a little faster then I would have liked, I now declare you Naruto, an official genin of Konoha."

Overwhelmed, he was overwhelmed. All the possibilities that opened with that one declaration; he'd get a sensei! He'd go on missions! He'd get stronger.

"When do I start?" He said with a rare smile. Hiruzen returned it and reached into his robes pulling out a forehead protector with the leaf emblem on it.

"Most likely in a weeks time. You will have to give me awhile to look into squad placement. There probably won't be any holes in any existing squads so it may be some time to find one for you. But do not worry, I will find a way to get you into active duty soon enough." The blonde didn't seem too upset with this and happily tied his new forehead protector loosely around his neck.

"No problem Hokage-sama, I'll see you when you call me." With a wave and a small smile the blonde was off.

"Hokage-sama huh?" Hiruzen chuckled. "I wonder if he'll be that enthusiastic after all the D-ranks I throw his way."

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It was small. It was a boy. It had yellow hair. Around it's neck hung a Konoha forehead protector. She really didn't know how much more she could take.

"Where did you get that?" She glowered. On her way home she happened to sight a certain blonde looking ever so pleased with himself walking her way. Apparently snapped out of his thoughts the blonde looked up to see who had addressed him. Her face seemed to register as his smile faltered and a slight look of irritation crossed his features.

"Get what? My smile? Apparently from your face."

He didn't exactly know why he always felt riled up whenever she was around, then again maybe it wasn't just her, maybe he just spoke to few too many people to really tell.

"The headband." She growled.

"Somebody seems angry." He drawled. "I got it from Hiruzen."

"Why?" She asked, fists clenching.

"Because I wanted one." He mocked.

"You know what I mean, why did he give it to you!" This was fun he decided. He didn't know why she was so angry, but it amused him greatly.

"How about you use your brain _girl_, what does one usually receive a headband for? I thought this was common knowledge that everybody knew." He noticed her scowl increase tenfold and decided to continue with the obnoxious condescending tone.

"Maybe I scared and dazed you too much earlier today in our fight that your brain still isn't in it's right place. Though I don't think one could actually call it a fight, more like…" Naruto didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as a fist collided with his face and sent him sprawling to the ground.

'_Did she really just do that?_'

He slowly gathered his limbs up and turned around to face Naruko, sure enough she was still in an offensive stance with her arm extended. His eyes bleed red.

"You…bitch." He was not amused.

_**A/N:**_

_**Thanks for the reviews, I'll update when I can, you know the usual bullshit authors spiel "OMG MY LIFE BRO, MY LIFE & LEIK THE POWER TOTALLY TURND OFF AND THEN MY COMPUTER EXPLODE AND I MAD!" But yeah, I'm trying to get back into writing fanfiction, and I will be removing this from the 'angst' section in a couple of chapters, I do not wish to maintain that course for this story, so expect lighter and better things in the future.**_

_**P.s the next story to be updated will be 'To Share My Pain', and for those who have not read it, no it is not in the slightest bit angsty despite the title. **_

_**MT~ **_


	5. Chapter 5

Present

He didn't bother to turn around as he noticed the tell-tale signs of a shunshin at work behind him.

"What is it Hokage-sama?" Naruto drawled. The silver haired ninja in question glared before addressing him.

"Don't call me that, or rather, that is the reason I came here. Sandaime-sama requests your presence to sort out the… finer details." Kakashi actually gained a slight smile causing Naruto to frown.

"What exactly is there to sort out?" He asked turning to face the man, only to notice him paying absolutely no attention at all. Lowering his book ever so slightly from his face, Kakashi gave an almost surprised expression that he was being addressed.

"Uhh…you say something?" Before Naruto could get another word in, the silver haired nin disappeared in a puff of smoke. The blonde openly glared at the recently vacated spot.

'_Was he trying to piss me off?'_ After 2 seconds of dwelling on that, another thought came to mind.

'_Stupid question._'

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"What is it Hiruzen?"

"Ah, Naruto-kun, just the person I was looking for." The aged man spoke with a smile.

"Save the pleasantries, I was in the middle of figuring how to go about my recently made mundane life."

"You're still Hokage."

"Excuse me?" Naruto asked with slight irritation.

"You're still Hokage, you did not officially retire, no paper work was signed, hence you are still the active Godaime Hokage." Naruto frowned.

"Idiotic logic, if I killed you, which I am growing tempted to do, would I need to sign a paper saying you were dead for it to be a reality?" It was a rhetorical question so when Hiruzen made to interrupt he silenced him before continuing. "Though this doesn't really matter, just give me the papers so I can retire and instate a certain silver haired jonin who apparently likes to piss people off." He finished with a glint in his eye.

"There is a…slight problem with that you see. Kakashi does not wish to become Hokage."

"Look at my face Hiruzen." Naruto made a visible effort to look as aloof as possible. "This is my I don't care face. As in, I don't care if Hatake does not want to be Hokage, as his Hokage I am making him Hokage."

"Naruto, you cannot simply force the position of Hokage onto someone unwilling." Naruto's eye twitched.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO JUST HALF AN HOUR AGO THEN OLD MAN!" To his credit Hiruzen actually chuckled before schooling his features into a serious expression.

"In all fairness I did not think you would retire after 33 seconds. But I am being serious Naruto, Konoha needs a strong kage, but not just strong, it needs someone who is devoted to the village and will protect it no matter what. I know you do not hold any particular love for Konoha, but with time maybe you will…" He trailed off as he noticed Naruto wasn't particularly paying much attention.

"There is more than the reason of unwillingness that has brought me to retirement, and I'm sure you know well what it is. Though do not get me wrong, even without the circumstances I still would've declined."

"Yes I know, so it has gotten that bad then?" Naruto grunted in response.

"I'll be fine, with retirement I'll most likely be around for decades. Now, the retirement papers if you would be so kind." He spoke, extending his arm towards the old kage.

"I cannot give them to you until you have a suitable replacement that is willing to take up the mantle. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, I know that may sound hypocritical coming from me but please, for Konoha's sake, make an appropriate choice." With a reluctant nod Naruto retracted his arm before heading for the door.

"Don't worry, I'll find someone."

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Why did this have to happen to him? He was supposed to be retired right now, relaxing, doing non-shinobi related activities, like trying to smash boulders with his… Ok, maybe he needed new hobbies.

'_What am I supposed to do now?_' … … … … … … What… am I… That could work.

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He glided across the rooftops with practiced ease, going to the far edges of the village. He knew where he was headed, and who he was headed to see, though admittedly he had never been there before. All he knew was when he got there; it would most likely be the biggest house. Not 2 minutes later he pushed off the last rooftop before landing a good few metres below onto the ground. His muscles jarred from the impact but he shook it off, the sensation of burning in his muscles lasted much longer than he had anticipated, though he knew the reason why.

'_And most likely after what I'm about to do they will only worsen._'

He took in the large double wooden doors as well as the words 'Namikaze Residence' embossed on. This was the place. With 3 loud knocks he announced his presence and waited for the inhabitant of the dwelling to answer. 14 seconds later he wasn't disappointed. Her hair looked a bit of a mess and her eyes were just faintly red, the only other thing out of place was the look of mild surprise shown on her face, quickly followed by an awkward slash meek slash embarrassed look. He took a guess that it had something to do with their previous interaction about an hour ago.

"What are you doing here?" She asked softly.

"Lose that weak look of yours, raise that voice to a more audible volume and stop looking like such a mess." All this was said with a rather neutral tone and bored look. Naruko grew slightly flustered at his comments before growling and slapping his face, rather hard he noted. Well it wasn't completely unexpected, in all actuality it was the preferred response, though he had been betting on the 'solemn nod of acceptance whilst being somewhat embarrassed'. Apparently she chose to surprise him, if only marginally. Well he may as well return the favour.

"Oh and, continuing with that train of thought, don't slap your Hokage fool girl." She looked a bit shocked before opening her mouth, no doubt to ask a torrent of questions he didn't care to hear.

"Hokage-sama demands silence now fool girl." He said with a stern look. To his amusement she actually remained quiet, though she had re-retained the pissed off look that he knew all too well.

"I will answer your questions that do not directly relate to the subject later, first off, do you have a training ground on the premises ?"

"Yes, but why?" She asked frowning.

"Actually I take that back, no questions, lead the way." She lead the way with an annoyed expression.

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'_What is he up to?_' His sudden appearance was a bit off putting, and to hear he was still Hokage even though he had just retired… What the HELL! SHE WANTED ANSWERS! But apparently 'Hokage-sama demands silence', ass. He was definitely up to something, just what she had yet to figure out. She opened the door to the outside arena and they stepped out onto the terrain.

"Big." He commented. A man of many words she drawled, well more so lately than ever.

"So what now?" She asked. He gave her a cursory look before smirking.

"Well I suppose I can answer that one, we spar."

"Come again?" Naruto sighed, before giving her a condescending look.

"You do know what a spar is, do you not?"

"I will hit you again." She dead panned.

"Yes, that is indeed what you do in a spar, one golden star for you."

She ignored the jab as excitement started to build, he wanted to spar? This was real? She could finally put all her training to the test and prove who was the strongest?

"Whenever you're ready." She spoke slipping into a stance with a small smile playing on her lips. Naruto returned the smile before crossing his forearms in front of his face in an 'X' shape.

"When I say 'Kai' we begin."

"Kai?" She questioned. He didn't bother to answer, he just mumbled before masses of energy started blazing out of control around him.

"Seimon…KAI!"

**A/N:**

_**Had to end it there for various reasons, yeah it was short but whatcha gonna do. Aimed for more humour. R&R. Just incase ya didn't know, yeah Naruto used the 8 gates.**_

_**Next 2 chapters will be out hopefully within the month. Oh and, do you want to actually see the fight between him and Naruko? I can just skip past it straight to the outcome, but I need a certain fb chap before that. It'd make a more beefy chap I spose, and since this has officially gone under 2k per chap it would be nice. Funny cos I actually make an effort not to read fics under 2k per chap.**_

_**MT~~~**_


	6. Chapter 6

His muscles burned with the familiar sensation of overflowing chakra, but compared to what he overloaded them with on the battlefield, this was child's play. He noticed her excitement, a complete contrast to his now emotionless visage. He crouched low to the ground before launching himself forward at extreme speeds. He wanted to test the waters; he had heard she was one of the more promising shinobi of the village. Going for a simple head on approach, he wasn't disappointed when she was able to block his first strike, though she seemed to be caught slightly off guard by his speed. Hopefully she adjusted, he could go much faster. In an instant he dropped to the ground and performed a successful leg sweep, as she tried to right herself in mid-air he delivered a powerful blow to her abdomen, sending her sprawling across the clearing.

Taking in a deep breath, he waited for her to gather herself up off the ground. He didn't have to wait long. She threw herself towards him whilst going through handseals, as she bought her fist forward to strike him in the face; he was faintly surprised when a rocket of futon chakra exploded out of it. He tilted his head to side only for it to clip his cheek drawing blood, not a second later Naruko had engaged him in a round of taijutsu, needless to say, he was starting to become impressed. She wasn't quite as fast as him, but she was fast enough that he couldn't dictate the flow of the fight and switch to the offensive on a whim; he had to wait her out and keep his eye out for an opening. The fact that she wasn't making mistakes made an opening hard to come by, he'd have to make one himself.

Making a particularly bad show of feinting a punch to the left, Naruto saw Naruko raise her guard in the opposite direction, his acting paid off as instead of feinting, he followed through with his punch to the left and got a hard hit right on her breast. He saw her grimace and halt her assault long enough for him to go on the offensive. She was making a good show of blocking a few of his blows, but even when they didn't hit home, the power behind them was sure to leave rather large bruises regardless of her blocking them or not. He was becoming slightly amused at the fact that she wasn't even trying to supress the pissed off look on her face at the fact that he was now dominating the fight. It wasn't going to be much more of a fight if this kept up, and he needed to see more. Rather abruptly he took a leap back to distance himself before addressing her, his chakra gates now closed.

"You know… they say that among the Jonin of this village, I am the strongest." Naruko just looked at him slightly confused that he would give up his advantage to seemingly gloat. He paused for a few seconds before continuing.

"They also say that the second strongest is you…" He spoke, reassuming his fighting stance, "I would like you to show me why." The message was loud and clear. Do _not_ hold back. _Fight_ me.

Naruto didn't know exactly what to think when she unclipped her kunai pouch and threw the thing in its entirety at him. He also didn't know what to think when she appeared in a yellow flash faster than he would've anticipated. A jarring knee to the chin connected followed by a round house kick to knock him off balance, though focusing thereafter allowed him to successfully block all of her follow up attempts. In between the punches she threw at him, she seemed to have kicked her thrown kunai pouch up off the ground, high into the air. Jumping back to distance herself, Naruko performed a futon jutsu that shredded the pouch sending all of the items inside flying in random directions throughout the sparring arena. Naruto noted the seals on each and every kunai and suddenly realised what he was up against. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. He had read a few books about the famed jutsu; they all held it in the highest of regards. They noted the sheer speed of the jutsu, as well as the versatility, though one thing the books never mentioned was, that above all else, the jutsu was very, VERY annoying. The blonde could only get his attacks about half way to their target before it flashed away again. There was a brief pause in the flashing as Naruko made a cross fingered handseal that he had only seen on a few occasions. When three more Naruko's brought themselves into existence, Naruto's eyes widened in realisation as he knew exactly what was about to happen.

They all disappeared in that same light before his body was bombarded from every direction. Blood flew from his mouth as she nailed his jaw for the second time during the fight. He had to stop this before they dealt any serious damage. Not caring for the repercussion this might have on his body his eyes flashed red followed by a great pain that spread throughout his being. He ignored it as he smashed his chakra injected fist straight into the ground below him, creating a substantial crater effectively getting rid of all Naruko's kunai within the surrounding area as well as destroying her clones. He glanced through the dust that now hung in the air searching for his opponent; it wasn't long before he spotted her looking slightly astounded at the damage he had caused with a simple punch. He allowed himself a small smirk before he grimaced clutching his arm in pain. It really was getting bad. Despite this he had indeed seen enough, she was clearly ready, the only problem was if he asked her to stop she would think she had won. Or more accurately, that she had forced him to _give up_. His pride wouldn't allow this. He would have to use it. Growling from the back of his throat he called forth a yellow shroud that covered his body in strange markings and energy. The chakra output was massive. But he wasn't finished. Crossing his arms in front of him again, he re-summoned the power that came with opening the chakra gates, this time six. The ground cracked. He was truly powerful.

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She had him on the defensive, 'wailing on him' would be more precise, with her three kage bunshin and hiraishin no jutsu, she was a force to be reckoned.

'_I've done it, he can't do anything!' _She thought '_I really have surpassed him!'_

She was happy, all her training had paid off, but she had to end it quick, the way she was throwing the Hiraishin around she would be dead from chakra exhaustion in another 2 minutes.

She saw him raise his fist into the air.

'_What is he doing?'_

Before bringing it down.

*BOOOOM!*

She was thrown back roughly as the ground was obliterated. She came to land a few feet away. Coughing out some dust and rubbing her backside as she proceeded to stand. The red head looked on in awe as she noticed the blond had succeeded in cratering her training area. With a _punch_. There went her primary form of attack, no doubt her marked kunai were far from in position at the moment. She supposed it was her fault for using her entire supply so early. Naruko saw him observing her when the dust cleared as she noted the state he was in. He was fairly dishevelled, short of breath and seemed to be clutching his arm rather tightly, in other words, she was in a far better state than he was. This was it, she would end it here. Naruto suddenly growled, hunching his posture slightly as a yellow energy followed by strange markings started to envelope him. Never had she seen anything like it. As he crossed his arms in front of himself like he had done at the beginning of the fight, he whispered before the ground beneath him cracked. How could someone hold this much power, it was… it was just not possible! He straightened himself and Naruko readied herself for his impending attack. But there was no way she could prepare herself for what happened. Her eyes had not left him and yet somehow he had his hand wrapped around her throat. She had not even seen him disappear, one moment he was 20 feet away, the next his hand was around her neck. She could not even process what had happened, it took until after he had already been holding her by the throat for a good amount of time before her body even reacted.

"Yield."

'_He's been toying with me all along? He had this kind of power but didn't deem it necessary to use on me? Am I really this weak compared to him?'_

Doubt had wormed its way into her head, but she wouldn't give up, she couldn't. Noticing her situation the redhead made to grab a hold of Naruto's wrist and pry him off of her. Her arms had not so much as twitched before they too were being held in place by what looked like yellow chakra arms. She struggled, but all that resulted in was loud breathing and a slight shifting of her body.

'_I..I can't move.'_

"_Yield._" He repeated in a stern tone.

Naruko hung her head in defeat. She had lost.

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He took her down turned head as a 'yes'. Sighing, he released her before closing his chakra gates and releasing his biju shroud. He nearly stumbled at the effect it had on his body, but he couldn't let it show, he wouldn't appear weak, especially in front of her. He noted she was still staring like a lost puppy at the ground. Did it really mean that much to her?

"Why the long face, you did well?" She didn't reply, just looked up at him with a sad expression."Well?"

"I lost…" She breathed. He noticed her eyes getting a little bit watery, and gave her a deadpanned expression.

'_Are you fucking kidding? She's going to cry?_'

Reacting on impulse he gave her a hard slap across the face. Naruko gave him a baffled look before it turned to anger.

"Don't go fucking crying on me now! Are you stupid or something? Or do you just have a split personality?"

He didn't know where all this was coming from, he had long since stopped swearing profusely. Maybe it was the fact that his body was in excruciating pain, or maybe he was just having an all round shit day.

"At the start of our match you were outright smiling, you were fucking BEAMING happy at my face, that was only 8 minutes ago. But now? Now you're here like the fool girl you are, on the verge of tears might I add, all because you're a sore little loser. So what you lost? I'm the fucking Hokage, of course you'd lose, it's not the end of the damn world. You always do this bloody sad girl act, '_I lost'_' He mocked her voice, "and it is fucking pathetic, you're supposed to be a damn ninja!" She clenched her jaw and her eyes began to water a bit, but she didn't speak.

"What? Do you want me to hold your hand and tell you you didn't lose? Cause you did! I BEAT you, big fucking deal, get over yourself!" He noted her trembling, but this just seemed to anger him even more.."And now you're standing there…standing there like a fucking COWARD taking all this shit I'm spouting about you and DOING NOTHING!"

Her face had gone red and tears were now streaming as she visibly shook. SHE WAS CRYING?

" HIT ME BITCH!"

She roared as she punched him in the face. Blood splattered onto the ground on impact. Over and over, each punch resounded with a loud thwack. Each punch was agonizingly painful to him, but he kept silent as she unleashed upon him. Finally, Naruko put all her energy into one last punch that sent him flying. His body hit the ground with a thud, and he lay there, still. Her heavy breathing was all that filled the air for a time whilst Naruto gathered himself off the ground, spitting a rather large glob of blood out as he did. Her turned to her and looked her straight in the eye.

"No more crying, Hokages don't cry." As he walked past her he slipped a piece of paper into the emotionally exhausted girls hands. "Personally I think you're better for the job than Kakashi anyways." He added as he left. As she opened the paper, she noted two signature boxes, one of which was filled in. It read:

'As the current Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, I hereby retire and enstate the signed name above as the new Hokage of Konohagakure.'

She noted someone had left their own little message on the form. In shoddy hand writing, an arrow with a message pointing to the empty box read.

'That's where you sign, fool girl_._'

Two blocks away, the person who had written the message had already collapsed in the street.

**A/N:**

**Didn't mean to turn it out like this but lack of writing recently apparently equals me writing a bunch of dramatic CRAP that even disgusts myself…..but I digress.**

**Writers block and all, but I doubt you really care so I won't bother with crap excuses. WHAT IS ANOTHER ADJECTIVE TO AMPLIFY THE PISSED OFF-NESS OF SOMEONE BESIDES 'FUCKING' I used it like fucking 7 times. I tried damn and bloody but they just didn't feel right .**

**I'll start addressing reviews again down the bottom of the page in my next chapter, I just haven't really been bothered to lately, wonder If you really care about that either.**

**Next chapter will probs be another time skip, I don't really see this as a story but a few snippets of interactions between two characters, but once I get passed all the events I want to cover I will probably be able to solidify a point in time where I will stay and carry out interactions and a plot through there.**

**Also I did a quick skim read through and couldn't find any grammatical errors but I know they are in there, but considering the state of chapter 2 and the shit hole of a grammar shit hole that it is I guess it's not bad in comparison. Oh and my paragraph structuring sucks massive cock. FUCKING RANT GG.**

**R&R**

**MT~**


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